There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box, which usually sits on top of the gaming machine.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller (MGC), the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, such as bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including key pads and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game.
The operations described above may be carried out on the gaming machine when the gaming machine is operating as a “stand alone” unit or linked in a network of some type to a group of gaming machines. As technology in the gaming industry progresses, more and more gaming services are being provided to gaming machines via communication networks that link groups of gaming machines to a remote computer that provides one or more gaming services. As an example, gaming services that may be provided by a remote computer to a gaming machine via a communication network of some type include player tracking, accounting, cashless award ticketing, lottery, progressive games and bonus games. In addition, gaming machines are evolving into gaming platforms where the gaming services and game play options provided on the gaming machines may be dynamically configured. Thus, the number and type of game services and game play options offered on a particular gaming machine may vary regularly with time.
Within the gaming industry, a particular gaming entity may desire to provide network gaming services and track the performance of all the gaming machines under the control of the entity. The gaming machines under the control of a particular entity may be globally distributed in many different types of establishments. Casinos, convenience stores, supermarkets, bars and boats are a few examples of establishments where gaming machines may be placed. Further, gaming entities are becoming increasingly interdependent. For instance, promotions may be provided that span multiple gaming entities. As another example, mechanisms such as cashless systems are being provided that allow game players to seamlessly engage in game play across multiple gaming entities.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting gaming machines distributed in different establishments partially connected by a dedicated communication network for typical gaming entities currently operating in the gaming industry. In FIG. 1, a first gaming entity 101 utilizes a central office 142. Gaming machines, 102, 104, 106, 136 and 138 operated by the gaming entity 101 are located in casino 110 and a store 140. The store 140 may be part of route comprising gaming machines distributed in such venue sites as stores, bars and other retail establishments. The gaming machines, 114, 116 and 118 for the gaming entity 150 are located in casinos 122. A gaming entity may operate hundreds, thousands or ten of thousands of gaming machines. Since gaming is allowed in many locations throughout the world, the two casinos, 110 and 122, the central office 142 and the store may be distributed over a wide geographic area. For instance, the casino 110 may be located in Atlantic City, N.J., the casino 122 may be located in Australia, the central office may be located in Las Vegas, Nev. and the store may be located in Reno, Nev.
Within the casinos, the gaming machines may be connected to one or more servers via one or more dedicated networks. The servers are usually located in a backroom of the casino away from the casino floor. For instance, in casino 110, gaming machines 102, 104 and 106 are connected to a server 100 via a dedicated network 108. The dedicated network 108 may be used to send accounting information and player tracking information from the gaming machines to the server 110. In casino 122, the gaming machines 114, 116, 118 may send accounting information and player tracking information to a server 112 using the dedicated network 120. Other dedicated networks (not shown) in casinos, 110 and 112, may provide such network gaming services as bonus game play, progressive game play and cashless ticketing.
In casinos 110 and 122, the servers 100 and 112 may store and process accounting data from the gaming machines in communication with the servers. For instance, an accounting report detailing the performance of individual and groups of gaming machines may be generated from the data stored on the servers 100 and 112. In addition, accounting data or reports may be sent to the server 124 in the central office 142 from each casino. These reports may contain game performance data collected from a number of gaming machines supporting many different types of games as well as hotel operations data. The data from the casino 110 may be sent to the central office 142 using a dedicated leased line 132 using a frame relay or ATM network. The data from the casino 122 may be sent to a central office (not shown) using the communication link 133.
In some cases, the gaming entities, 101 and 150, may exchange information in some manner. For instance, a player may be issued a cashless instrument at casino 122, such as an award ticket valid for game play, and the player may then utilize the award ticket at casino 110. In this example, gaming entity 150 may transfer resources to gaming entity 101, in some manner, to cover a value of the cashless instrument used by the player. The server 124 may be used to generate reports summarizing the performance of all the gaming machines within the gaming entity (e.g. casino 110, casino 122 and store 140). The reports may be accessed locally using the local access points 126 and 128 via the local network. In addition, reports may be remotely accessed using a dial in number for a limited number of users. For instance, an executive traveling on the road might view gaming machine performance data from a remote access point 134, where the remote access point 134 may be a hotel room.
For the store 140, the gaming machines, 136 and 138 may be leased by the store operator. However, the cost of a dedicated communication network for a small number of gaming machines is usually not justified. Thus, the gaming machines operate in a “stand alone” mode. While operating in “stand alone” mode, network gaming services are not available to these gaming machines. To obtain performance data for the gaming machines, 136 and 138, a route operator may regularly extract performance data from the machines and manually transmit the information to the central office 142. A route may consist of a number gaming machines located in various locations such as bars, convenience stores and supermarkets. Usually, the route operator manually extracts performance data for all of the gaming machines located on their route. For a large route, this process may be both time consuming and costly.
Within the gaming industry, there is some desire to provide centralized network gaming services, centralized data access, centralized data analysis, centralized configuration management and centralized data acquisition to all of the gaming machines or a larger proportion of gaming machines within a gaming entity. The centralization may be provided at both the casino level and the corporate level as a means of lowering information management costs and optimizing gaming performance. A current barrier to providing the centralized services, described above, is the complexity and costs of obtaining and managing large amounts of information from a large variety of gaming machines some of which may be dynamically configurable. Further, within the gaming industry, game performance information has traditionally been closely guarded and has not been widely shared even within a gaming entity. Thus, mechanisms for data sharing on a large scale have not been generally implemented in the gaming industry. In addition, once the data is obtained, another barrier is analyzing the information and applying it in a manner that is both useful and convenient to users within the gaming entity.
In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide hardware and methods for data sharing, data analysis and configuration management for gaming machines that reduce the complexity of the information management environment. Also, it is desirable for the hardware and methods to be scaleable to a large number of gaming machines and machine operators where the gaming machines and machine operators are widely distributed within a gaming entity.
Furthermore, within a single casino or other gaming establishment, the configuration of a slot area or other region containing multiple gaming machines generally tends to be a manual process. Casino personnel or other operators usually need to visit each gaming machine physically in order to set or adjust the various gaming machine settings or configurations. This is not only a very time consuming process, but it is also prone to numerous forms of errors, such as the erroneous setting of undesirable game denominations, incorrect or improper bonus awards, inappropriate or undesirable attract mode sequences, improper volume levels, unduly harsh or overly permissive harm minimization features, and others. Such errors may go undetected for hours or days, frequently to the detriment of the casino or other gaming operator.
Successful solutions to the foregoing problems, however, can result in further issues related to such solutions. For example, the foregoing related parent and sibling applications provide for a central gaming terminal data repository (GTDR) and support system adapted for a wide variety of useful purposes, such as the remote control and monitoring of various inputs, amounts collected, amounts paid, games and other software components to gaming machines. Such remote control of gaming machines can result in changes that may affect a number of significant items, including game play related elements, such as, for example, paytables, game denominations, presentation speeds, machine return or cash throughput, and the like.
Although some level of remote control and monitoring may provide some relief with respect to much of the configurating and re-configurating of gaming machines that has been traditionally done manually, further improvements in such remote configurations of gaming machines is desirable. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide additional hardware, software and/or methods for configurating gaming machines and gaming terminals remotely. In particular, such provisions should be capable of ensuring that such gaming machines and terminals can be remotely configurated quickly, accurately, and in large numbers, including across entire casinos or even multiple casinos or other gaming properties.